Peruvian Cilantro Rice

Good effort at a Peruvian dish. In Peru, this dish is called "arroz verde" (green rice) or "arroz con pollo" (rice with chicken). It is a very popular dish. I live in Peru and eat it frequently. It's one of my kids' favorites. Chicken legs are used instead of breasts. Onion and aji (or other spicy pepper) is a must. Saute onion, garlic, and pureed aji, then liquify these with the cilantro and chicken broth. Fresh peas and carrots are always better (you can't get frozen veggies in Peru).

Well budy i am peruvian and just to tell u are missing key ingrdients to this peruvain recipe like the yellow pepper found in mexican produce stores wich is used for most peruvian foods and this other on too aji collorado

This recipe is alright, I think the frozen carrots and pea do it no justice, it makes it more like a cheap food court fried rice plate. This is how I've been making arroz verde (green rice) for years.. in a blender blend chicken broth, 2 cloves garlic, a yellow aji chili pepper (seeded) , & cilantro untill liquefied. set aside. Heat olive oil in pot and saute chopped red onion and rice for about 5 mins. Add the chicken/cilantro broth and bring to boil, reduce to low and let cook. When done fluff with fork, toss with chopped scallions and add salt & pepper to taste.

My husband is peruvian and we always make this with beer (cusquena or corona.)you add it with the cilantro so the rice can soak it up. (about half a bottle or more if you like)I know this dish as arroz con pollo. If you make it right, its delicious.

Very good! I used fresh carrots because that's what I had plus used a full cup of both carrots and peas but otherwise followed the recipe and it turned out great. My family liked it very much.

I really wanted to try this recipe, because oddly enough, these ingredients were all we had in the house today! After reading other reviews I made some adjustments to steps 2 and 3 to avoid the blandness. For step 3, I used fresh carrots (about 1 cup diced) and sauteed them along with the garlic and also 1 tbsp. cumin (freshly roasted and ground) and 1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper. I then added the chicken, salt and pepper, rice and reserved chicken water. I added the cilantro towards the end of cooking and just heated it through so that it didn't get diluted or turn that off color. I also just added the thawed peas at this point, I see no point in cooking them to death. Perfecto!

I turned this into a side dish for chicken and loved it. I added some leftover green onion to the cilantro and basically just made a green rice using the puree and chix stock to cook the rice

Sounded delicious......extremely bland and I prepared it just as directed.

The CDA and other medical organizations suggest 4 oz. of meat per serving. This therefore makes TWO servings. TWO, not six. Unfortunately, it also makes from four to eight servings of rice, which is less than useful. I suggest that the user either triple the amount of meat or reduce the amount of liquid and rice by two-thirds.

My husband is not a big cilantro fan...i made it anyway and he loved it! So did the kids.

I also made this as a side dish and found it overall very good, but rather bland as prepared. It was also very juicy when the rice was done - I had to thicken it a bit. I am keeping this one to have again, but next time I will add a bit of heat (maybe some curry or finely shopped hot pepper) and will only use as much of the reserve liquid as my rice can use, rather than a full2.5 cups.

This dish has a lot of potential, but doesn't work for me as it is - I had to throw out nearly the entire batch. How a dish with that much cilantro and smells so good can be bland is beyond me, but it really needs to be "taken up a notch." Other reviewers mentioned yellow pepper and cajun spice; both would be interesting, I think. I'm also wondering about cayenne and jalepeno.

Very Flavorful! I always have lots of cilantro from the garden to use in this one. I made it a second time using tofu. (really helped the tofu...)

Great ingredients, disappointing finish. I used fresh carrots and broccoli. Cumin taste overwhelming, and dish was rather dry.

So I thought this was kind of bland, but otherwise, pretty good. I added some Johnny's salt to it and some pepper which made it taste a bit better. If I could pinpoint some spices to make it pop, itd be a lot better. EDIT: After letting it sit in the fridge for a night or two, I think this ends up tasting a lot better!

Here are my changes. I seasoned my chicken with sazon, minced garlic, cumin, seasoned salt and red pepper flakes. I then stir fried the chicken in olive oil. In a blender I added fresh cilantro, water and beer. I poured my cilantro mixture with my jasmine rice, added some butter and left it to steam. Once completed I added it to my chicken along with carrots, peas and broccoli and topped it with sliced red pepper. The family loved it!

What attracted me to this recipe were the ingredients - especially the large amount of cilantro, which is one of my favorites. So I was very surprised and disappointed at how bland the dish tasted - not a hint of cilantro! It all got cooked out I guess. I used all fresh ingredients incl. home made chicken broth. This recipe needs some serious 'tweaking'.

Very delicious. I used mixed frozen veggies, left out the chicken, and substituted the garlic for garlic powder. My whole family loved it!

Made it today and loved it. The only thing I added was an onion. I'm far not a Peruvian but this tasted pretty good to me.

This is an excellent dish, my peruvian mother in law taught me how to make it a little differently though. Use one red pepper cut into thin strips and sautee with 2 cloves of fresh garlic, then add the cilantro, cumin, salt and pepper and chicken. Boil until chicken is cooked, add rice, and one package of frozen peas and carrots. YUMMY!

I cooked this tonight and it was so good I couldn’t believe I was the one who made it. I used some shredded kitchen I had pressure cooked almost a week ago. I had to do something with is so I used it here. After frying up the garlic I put in the chicken and puréed cilantro with frozen peas since I don’t care for cooked carrots. I used boxed chicken stock. The one tablespoon of cumin wasn’t enough for me. I did not like one and a half plus pepper and seasoned salt. I’ll make this again for sure.

This was very easy to make and very good. I didn't put in the chicken, but I used chicken stock to cook the rice.

This is not good... so excited to make this dish. Took much longer to prepare than noted and the cumin was very overpowering. Needs much more flavor. I will not make this again.Very dissapointing.

it was a little bland as is, but with some chili garlic sauce was pretty good. The cilantro was a little gritty, so next time I would make sure it was throughly pureed.

I love this recipe! I add salt to the boiling water and I shred the chicken rather than dice it. I love it so much that it has become a Saturday night meal for me!

It was still a nice change to the traditional rice & chicken...but like the others said, a bit bland. The flavor of the cumin and cilantro were very yummy, but it needed a bit more punch. Probably the peppers that the other member talked or maybe a chili & way more garlic and maybe some onion??? Family still enjoyed it and we probably will make it again, but will play with it a bit more...Oh I added the juice of one fresh lime and it gave the dish a great zing. Thanks for the variety!

delicious--and SO easy!! I sauteed the garlic, fresh carrots, and cumin before adding the cilantro mixture and my already cooked rice. It was a hit--we scraped the bottom of the pan! I will definitely make this again!!

Way too much cumin. also, I despise boiled meats, so I sauteed the chicken in coconut oil for a crispy exterior before placing it on top of the rice to cook. Otherwise, even if this is authentic Peruvian, we did not like it.

I spiced it up a bit. I added grilled Jalapeños pepper, Tomatillos and grilled Pablano Peppers. And instead of boiling the chicken, I grilled it and then used Chicken Broth and beer to cook the rest of the dish.

According to my family this is by far the best dish I've ever made in my life... and to be honest with you it's also one of the easiest. I'm from the far East and whole family went gaga when I served this with the Inca Mama style (no mayonnaise) Peruvian Aji recipe also on this site. Next time I may use leg meat, though, or boil the breast meat a bit less than what the recipe suggests. I might also try the yellow peppers others have suggested, as there's bound to be regional variations for any national food.

Not sure why others rated it as bland? However I added the cilantro closer to the end of cooking we thought it came out great! Probably would taste great with added spiceness to if you wanted a spicy dish though.

Good dish. I don't have a blender or processor so I just used cilantro leaves and that was fine. Also didn't have cumin so I used 1 Tbsp of cajun spice, my husband's favorite, so no problem with blandness. Rice seemed to having problems cooking so next time I'll cook it in a deep pot instead of large saucepan.

Awesome, You can use this as a main dish since this is very filling!

simply delicious. I used this recipe just as is and my family loves it.